Sandra Devlin (deceased 2006) was a veteran journalist of 30+ years and a self-confessed genealogy addict. Until September of 2005, she free-lanced from her home office in in Moncton, New Brunswick in a section of the city called Harrisville, where her maternal MILLS ancestors of United Empire Loyalist extraction have farmed for six generations.

Besides having a personal fixation, genealogy was also part of Sandra's livelihood. After a 25-year career as a daily newspaper reporter, photographer, editor and managing editor in New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia, southern and Northern Ontario followed by a three-year stint as a community college journalism instructor in P.E.I., Sandra decided in 1996 to launch a full-time freelance journalist career from her home office.

A cornerstone of this enterprise was a self-syndicated, weekly
genealogy column launched in April 1997 and published in more than 12 newspapers in the Maritime Provinces including: The Times & Transcript, Moncton;
The King's County Record, Sussex, N.B.; The Miramichi Leader, Miramichi
City, N.B.; The Guardian, Charlottetown, P.E.I.; The Journal-Pioneer,
Summerside, P.E.I; The Daily News, Truro, N.S.; The Bulletin and The
Progress Enterprise, Bridgewater and Lunenburg, N.S, the Port
Hawkesbury Reporter, Cape Breton, and the Northern Light, Bathurst.

Sandra's roots were primarily in the Maritimes --southeastern and the
North Esk, Miramichi of New Brunswick, north central Nova Scotia and
Prince Edward Island. Her husband Rod (deceased 2004) had family ties in the Eastern
Townships of Quebec, the greater-Toronto area and the North West
Territories. Their five children were born in Edmonton, Alberta and
Kitchener, Ontario. Four are married and there are six grandchildren, scattered from coast to coast from P.E.I.
to Quebec and westward to Vancouver Island. A bachelor son lives in Nova
Scotia.

In the summer of 1997 Rod and Sandra had great fun acting as extra,
doubles and stand-ins the CBC Television series Emily of New Moon.
It was difficult to have a conversation with Sandra (nee: Hosford)
that didn't eventually get around to genealogy or history.
She boasted ancestral ties to many of the primary Maritime pioneer
settlement groups: Irish, German , English (especially Yorkshire) and
the United States (including Loyalist). The grandchildren expand the
sphere to Acadian, French-Canadian and Huguenot.

Other things which kept Sandra busy included active involvement on
the executive of the Southeastern Branch of the New Brunswick
Genealogical Society, volunteer trainer at Heritage Room, Moncton
Library, book review editor of Generations, quarterly journal of NBGS,
membership in the New Brunswick Irish Society, leading seminars, guest
speaker gigs, writing features and assignments for magazines and
newspapers plus undertaking research projects (specializing in genealogy
and history) for individuals, private and public sector companies,
religious groups and organizations.

In her spare time Sandra indulged in her other passions:
contract bridge, flower gardening, crossword puzzles, camping,
photography, golf, needlepoint and travelling.

Genealogy researchers in Atlantic Canada, and those having family connections there were saddened to learn that Sandra Devlin, writer of 'Missing Links' & 'East Coast Kin', was diagnosed with terminal Cancer in September 2005, and passed away in February of 2006. Sandra will be deeply missed by her readers, friends and all of us at The Global Gazette